SOC433H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Genetically Modified Crops, Animal Feed
Eating (134-147)
• Health food was for people that were health conscious now more people are eating it and
mainstream grocery stores have started to carry it
• Preservative in food caused scares about potential health risks such as cancer
• The critique has gone in two directions
o addressed the likely environmental impacts when each year farmers apply a billion
pounds of highly toxic pesticides to their crops and feed twenty-five million pounds of
antibiotics to healthy farm ani- mals, and when foreign genes are transplanted into a crop
plant’s genome and millions of hectare of the new, bioengineered crop are planted.
o Two, the critique has discussed the potential public health impacts when consumers
ingest pesticide residues, growth hor- mone residues, and genetically modified
vegetables.
• Uncertainty whether the controversies are real or just exaggeration
• People are concerned about this which is why organic food consumption has increased
• Shows that rising consumption is an expression of inverted quarantine impulse
• Sources of potential hazard in fruits and vegetables
• Pesticide residues
• In the case of produce, most of the discussion to date has been about pesticide residues.
• Crops are routinely sprayed with herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.
• After an agricultural chemical has done the work it was meant to do, some of it decomposes.
Some of it washes away when it rains and gets in the water sources and soil
• Some residues can re- main on the plant or be absorbed by the roots and end up in parts of the
plant that will be eaten, the fruit or the leaf.
• Those residues will still be there when the item goes on sale at the grocery store or supermarket
and still be there when those foods are served and eaten.
• Federal regulations set standards for how much pesticide residue may remain on or in fruits and
vegetables.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) runs a Pesticide Detection Program that buys
thousands of samples of fruits and vegetables in markets and tests them for pesticide residues to
see if these standards are being met or exceeded
• Testing has found that often times the food has over exceeded the limit in pesticide levels
• This is especially harmful for children
• But is still said to be safe to eat
• Other contaminants in produce
• Even if plants aren’t directly sprayed with pesticide, the food can still be contaminated due to
contaminants in the soil and water
• Banned pesticides, metals, and rocket fuel are just some, a tiny fraction, of all the substances in
soil and water today.
• even when it is shown that some substance is in the soil or in the water, it takes further work to
figure out if that substance is then taken up by crop plants and how much of it is taken up, and
therefore how that substance might even- tually affect the health of the person who eats that fruit
or vegetable.
• Genetically modified crops
• Much of the world has continued to be leery of GM crops.
• GM crops may eventually be proven to be hazardous but there is no solid proof yet
• But we should not be eating these crops when there no solid evidence of the potential risks yet
• When we look at the polls, the American consumer seems less perturbed and not particularly well
informed about the GM issue
• It could be a sign of acceptance
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Some companies have decided not to use GMO foods, such as Gerber and McDonalds
Sources of potential hazard in meat and dairy products
• Animals can also ingest substances via the water they drink, but that issue has not (yet) gotten
widespread attention.
• Hormones and antibiotics
• Animals are injected with growth hormones so that they can gain weight faster and they can be
sold quicker
• Healthy cows, pigs, and chickens are fed antibiotics
o Helps them grow faster and keeps them bacteria free
• Just as with re- gard to pesticide residues in produce, agricultural interests and gov- ernment
regulators generally say “no,” while health activists (and European governments, as we will see
presently) think otherwise.
• the EU banned the use of growth hor- mones in cattle and banned the import of beef products
from ani- mals that had been fed growth hormones.
• the con- cern is that feeding animals all those antibiotics exerts powerful evolutionary pressures
on bacteria, creating ideal conditions for the rapid emergence of bacterial strains that are resistant
to most currently available antibiotics, with potentially disastrous consequences for public health
• Animal feed
• There is a possibility that pesticide residues on crops fed to farm animals are still there when the
meat from these animals is eaten, and that feed made from rendered animal by-products can
spread bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.
• Pesticide issues
• Corn and soybeans make up the bulk of commercial animal feeds, somewhere between 70 and 90
percent
• the feed made from these crops may have pesticide residues in them. Once eaten, those residues
might even bioaccumulate over a lifetime of feeding, especially in animals’ fatty tissue.
• USDA tells consumers to trim the fat off the animals because sometimes the pesticides can have
traces left over in the animal
• Other residues in feed crops
• many kinds of industrial chemicals and also postconsumer wastes can and do end up in soil and in
water.
• If any of these contaminants are present where feed crops are grown and if the particular crop
grown there tends to absorb those contaminants, they can end up in animal feed.
• These other possible contaminants via feed are discussed much less in the literature than the
problem of pesticides
• Genetically modified corn and soybeans as animal feed
• the typical farm animal eats GM feed,
• studies suggest that GM feed is safe
• Europeans are more conscious about GM feeds
• Embracing a precautionary outlook, organic meat advocates say organic is safer not only because
the feed given to or- ganically raised animals is pesticide free but also because the feed is not
made of genetically modified grain.
• the American public does not seem particularly concerned about this facet of the GM issue.
• Feed made from animal parts and animal wastes
• Consumers are aware and are concerned that billions of pounds of meat, animal fat, bone, and
blood—all waste products from the slaughterhouse—plus chicken feathers and poultry litter are
processed into animal feed.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Animals drinking water
• Farm animals do not drink tap water which passes SDWA standards
• Farm animals drink river water, pond water, and groundwater pumped from aquifers and can be
contaminated
• If animals are offered polluted, poor-quality water, they may stop drinking, become listless, stop
growing, fall ill and die
Substance added when foods are processed
• substances are added mostly to “enhance flavor, ensure desirable texture, or retard spoilage.
• No one can say for sure how bad the additives are for the people as the evidence isn’t clear
The growth and mainstreaming of organic food
• The sheer number of different organic food items now offered for sale has grown enormously.
• You can now buy all sorts of organic staples: breads and cereals, meat, poultry, fish, dairy
products, and baby food.
Pg. 148-152
• all organic foods are now bought in mainstream supermarkets rather than in
specialized “health food” or “natural food” stores
• giant food conglomerates have begun col- onizing the organic market
• The process of mergers and acquisi- tions is not as far advanced as in the bottled
water industry, where three major corporations control over 50 percent of the
market, but the trend is unmistakable.
• General missls
• Coca cola
• Smuckers
• Dean foods
• Heinz
• When such big players take notice and begin to move in, it is a clear indicator that a product has
become—or is at least well on the way to becoming—a true mass consumer item.
Environmental activism or inverted quarantine response
• Increased organic consumption could be due to the following reasons
o Expression of environmental activism
o Want to keep the potentially hazardous substances out of their and their kids bodies
▪ Organic milk has had the greatest demand
• The Organic Lifestyle Shopper Study 2000 asked consumers what motivated them to buy organic.
o Sixty-six percent said they bought organic because it improved their “overall health,”
o 30 per- cent said specifically because they were concerned about “food safety,”
o 26 percent said because of the “environment.
• The Whole Foods Market survey (2002) asked consumers what “organic” means to them.
o Seventy-eight percent said it means “products without pesticides,”
o 72 percent said, “products without antibiotics and growth hormones,”
o 68 percent said, “products with- out GMOs,”
o 59 percent said, “products without irradiation.”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
In the case of produce, most of the discussion to date has been about pesticide residues. It could be a sign of acceptance: some companies have decided not to use gmo foods, such as gerber and mcdonalds. Animals drinking water: farm animals do not drink tap water which passes sdwa standards, farm animals drink river water, pond water, and groundwater pumped from aquifers and can be contaminated. If animals are offered polluted, poor-quality water, they may stop drinking, become listless, stop growing, fall ill and die. Substance added when foods are processed substances are added mostly to enhance flavor, ensure desirable texture, or retard spoilage: no one can say for sure how bad the additives are for the people as the evidence isn"t clear. Seventy-eight percent said it means products without pesticides, : 72 percent said, products without antibiotics and growth hormones, . 68 percent said, products with- out gmos, : 59 percent said, products without irradiation.
